1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to handling and registering of information about missed call events in a mobile communications environment. In particular, the present invention relates to an Internet multimedia environment of mobile communications.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In view of usability and functionality today's mobile communication systems are still under development. Disadvantages became continuously apparent to users and developers of mobile communication systems. The field of the present invention is associated with the current handling of missed calls, i.e. calls directed to mobile terminals which are not accepted by users of the terminals due to all possible reasons including out of operation mode of the mobile terminals. Today's typical Public Mobile Communications Networks (PLMN) provide digital voice mailbox recorders as a standard feature. Calls to a mobile terminal can be routed to the digital voice mailbox recorders in case the mobile terminals are switched off or in case a user has predefined call routing rules. That means for instance all incoming calls are routed to an appropriate digital voice mailbox recorder within a certain predefined period of time, when the mobile terminal is present in a certain geographic region, when the user currently holds a presently active communication connection. The enumeration may be continued.
Principally, two different base situations have to be considered for more detailed illustration of the background of the present invention. In the first situation, an example mobile terminal in question shall be in operation, whereas the mobile terminal shall be out of operation in the second situation.
The mobile terminal in operation is independently able to log all incoming call indications signalized by the PLMN to the terminal device. On receiving a call attempt by the PLMN allowance is made for the user for accepting, ignoring and rejecting the attempt for establishment of a communication connection. Accordingly, the mobile terminal is able to log all call attempts in conjunction with information about the user action as a consequence of the signalizing (sometimes called “signaling”). That means for instance that one or more dedicated applications operated on the terminal device are adapted to log incoming call indications and user events occurring as a consequence of the call indications. Conventionally, the resulting information is moreover managed and stored in a sorted way by the one or more dedicated applications, such that the user may be for example allowed to recall information about all previously accepted calls and all previously missed or rejected calls for being displayed and employed. Further conventionally, such presentations of information are normally supported and obtained by a (graphical) user interface operated on the terminal device. The user interface is principally adapted for displaying information to a user, the presentation of which is operable with key input of the user.
Moreover, the terminal device receiving an incoming call indication which is not accepted by the user, may be configured to route the call to a digital voice mailbox system, which allows a caller to leave a voice message for the user of the terminal device. In case the caller has left a voice message on the voice mailbox system, the user of the terminal is normally informed about the new available voice message by a network message such as a Short Message (SM) provided by the Short Message Service (SMS) available in the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The disadvantage of the described state of the art information about voice messages is that on the one hand the mobile terminal logs all incoming call events and on the other side voice messages are prompted to a user of the mobile terminal by network messages. Applications operated on the mobile terminal which are responsible for logging of call events and network messages, respectively, are completely separate such that the information available by the applications is not brought together although the combination of this information would be favorable for the usability of the mobile terminal.
The mobile terminal that is out of operation is apparently not able to receive any signals, indications, messages etc. from a public land mobile network. Correspondingly, incoming call indications can not be routed to the mobile terminal such that normally the calls directed to the mobile terminal out of operation are rerouted automatically to a voice mailbox system of the PLMN. In turn, in case the caller has left a voice message on the voice mailbox system, the user of the terminal is normally informed about the new available voice message by a network message. The use of network messages for prompting a user about voice messages on a voice mailbox system is beneficial in this case because network messages such as short messages operated by the SMS are stored by the PLMN until the mobile terminal returns into operation. There are also solutions available which overcome the problem about missed calls the callers of which have not left voice messages. Normally, such missed calls are not logged because the mobile terminal is out of operation and hence not able to respond thereto and the PLMN does not support any logging function dedicated therefor.
US 20020094811 discloses a method which allows logging of missed calls by the PLMN and teaches to use network messages such as Mobile-Terminating Forward Short Messages (MT-FSM) to inform the user of the mobile terminal after switching on about the missed calls analogous to the informing about voice messages left by callers during out of operation of the mobile terminal. Nevertheless, the information conveyed to the terminal device via network messages is not combined with information acquired by logging functionality of the mobile terminal obtained in an operational state although the combination of this information is favorable for the usability of the mobile terminal
It is apparent to those skilled in the art that the presently employed methods for indicating missed calls and voice mailbox messages to a user lack in usability since the logged information is not composed adequately to be presented in a uniform presentation which guarantees usability.